Insider Trading Charges Elicit 5th Guilty Plea : Crime: At issue are profits from tips about then-pending Motel 6 takeover. Civil case names 23 people as violators.

The president of Greenwald Securities Trading Inc. pleaded guilty Tuesday to participating in a coast-to-coast insider trading ring that profited off shares of Motel 6 when it was a takeover target in 1990.

So far, six defendants have been named in criminal charges growing out of the scheme, and 23 others have been named in a related civil case brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission--the most defendants ever named in an SEC insider trading case.

The defendants in the SEC case could be liable for more than $10 million in fines and penalties.

Joseph Greenwald, 33, a lawyer who heads the Wall Street investment firm bearing his name, was charged with one criminal count of conspiracy. He could be sentenced to up to five years in prison and fined more than $250,000.

Greenwald was also accused of trading in shares of Norton Co., which received a tender offer from BTR in 1990.

Assistant U.S. Atty. David Meister said the amount of money Greenwald made from the scheme has not been made public and that the investigation is continuing.

Dallas-based Motel 6, a nationwide chain of economy motels, was acquired by Accor, a French hotel and tourism company, in August, 1990. Before the takeover, Kohlberg, Kravis, Roberts & Co. owned the majority of Motel 6 through various partnerships.

On July 12, 1990, Accor announced it would buy Motel 6 for $22.50 a share, almost $6 over the previous day’s closing price on the New York Stock Exchange.

One of the defendants in the SEC civil case is former Motel 6 executive Hugh Thrasher.

Others charged in the criminal case are John Anderson, owner of Sun Days Tanning Centers, a Beverly Hills tanning parlor chain; Gregg Shawzin, owner of Futures-Link Inc., a Beverly Hills commodities brokerage firm, and Jeffrey Sanker, a Los Angeles nightclub promoter.

Greenwald was the fifth criminal defendant to plead guilty.

The SEC alleges that Thrasher had tipped a dying friend, Carl Harris, about the pending takeover in order to “bestow a gift” on him. Harris, who has since died, tipped others, including Shawzin, who passed the information on to Anderson.

The criminal charges allege that the Motel 6 trades generated more than $1.1 million in accounts, which Anderson shared or controlled.